Hi everyone! Welcome on board a first timer on my channel. This time the route from Roosendaal to Vlissingen. I've been driving on this route for a while, but it was never bingo for recording a video. So here it finally is. The first time to Vlissingen on my channel.
0:00 Roosendaal
For this ride we start in Roosendaal. Located in the south west of the country. Not far from here we'll leave the province of Brabant and enter Zeeland for the first time on this channel. We depart perfectly on time from Roosendaal. But we have some bumps on the route (literally). Will we make it on time to Vlissingen?
6:39 Kragge Connection
A small shunting yard of located here on the left side.
8:40 Bergen op Zoom
First stop on the route. Still on time here. After departure from this station we'll enter (as far as I know) The Netherlands longest curved railway track. A huge turn with at the end the province border to Zeeland.
14:47 Province Border
As promised above.
15:46 Kreekrakspoorbrug
Railway bridge over the Schelde-Rijnkanaal.
18:15 Rilland-Bath
Still on time here. As you can see the platform is pretty short here. In this province we have fast and slow intercity's running. The fast ones only stop at the stations with longer platforms (upto 10 carriages of VIRM). The slow intercity (this train) has a maximum length of 6 carriages of VIRM because of these short platforms.
23:13 Krabbendijke
That was a short ride between two station.
26:15 Temporary Speed Limit (1/3)
We had a lot of rain during autumn in 2023 (El Nino effect). Due to all that rain the railway dikes got instable on some places. In december the train schedule from/to Vlissingen was even adjusted because of this. Now "only" three temporary speed limits are still in place on this line. Really annoying for passengers using this line because they quickly get trains delayed. Here's speed limit 1/3.
29:18 Kruiningen-Yerseke
Our first minute delay on the chart.
32:57 Vlakebrug
Here's one of the two bridges without overhead wires on the line. The pantographs reach their maximum height as the wire are raised in the last few meters before the bridge (and come down after the bridge). The driver only takes away the trains traction to prevent lights flashes between the wires and the pantograph. On the other side of the bridge the pantograph slides under the wires again and high voltage comes back to the train.
33:26 Temporary Speed Limit (2/3)
Another speed restriction in place. :(
36:45 Kapelle-Biezelinge
We're now two minutes behind on schedule. Not a big problem for passengers towards Vlissingen. But imagine what happens when driving back to Roosendaal. There passengers have short train connections to get. A two minute delay can already mean you must wait half an hour longer on your next connecting train.
41:07 Goes
Trying to get back on schedule ASAP. Giving all there is as a driver.
45:12 Temporary Speed Limit (3/3)
And there's another speed limit. :(
50:11 Lewedorp (Vlissingen-Oost Connection)
On the left side you can see the tracks towards the Vlissingen-Oost Harbor splitting up. This line is only used for freight trains.
51:18 Arnemuiden
Getting back on schedule is not working well with all those speed restrictions.
53:46 Arnebrug (ATB Track Failure)
Yay! And there's a ATB track failure in place as well. :( Here the train looses the speed code in the tracks. This means we don't know what is going on on the tracks ahead. Therefor we must start driving on sight until the next main light signal. And again no way to get back on schedule here. It's time for ProRail to take this whole line under huge construction!
55:38 Middelburg
Still a two minute delay on the train schedule.
1:00:35 Vlissingen Souburg
Almost arrived at out final destination. Just one more stop to make. The rain is also making the tracks a little slippery. This occurs faster on this line than on other line due to the wind coming from sea. The air coming from sea also gives a chemical reaction on the tracks. When it becomes wet it's slippery faster than under normal conditions.
1:03:43 Vlissingen
Final stop for this ride with just a minute delay. I guess you can see why it's our final stop. ;) We just arrived on another end of our country. All the way in the south west of The Netherlands. Welcome in Vlissingen! I hope you enjoyed the ride. Let me know what you think of it in the comments below. See you back in two weeks! :D Cheers!
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